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BWI -Blogging While Intoxicated... a little less dangerous than DWI, for the most part ... Can you discern a DWI rant from a sober one? What makes many famous writers alcholics? ... and somebody compiled an Amazon list of Top 13 Works of Fiction Dealing with Alcoholism ... .... hick ....
posted by celerystick at 10:38 PM PST - 19 comments

Taiwan ignores drug patent - To save its people from a dangerous flu, Taiwan is synthesizing a vaccine without permission. This bears a striking resemblance to a classic moral dilemma of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Kohlberg's theory is not without criticism, including gender bias, Western-centric thinking, and external validity. Simply knowing a person's decision doesn't tell you about their stage of development; you have to know the reasoning behind it, which is hard to come by in real world situations. Conversely, knowing a person's stage of moral development (even harder to come by in the real world) does not reliably predict their decision (moreso at the higher levels). Nor does Kohlberg's theory scale to what choices societies themselves make. Decision Making is a booming field of research, but how much research is being done on morality and group decision making? Not much. (initial article via /.)
posted by Eideteker at 9:32 PM PST - 33 comments

The *Original* King Kong Model is Animated One Last Time (large Quicktime video).
posted by JPowers at 8:52 PM PST - 16 comments

Nova Science Now recently ran a segment on lightning (quicktime, real, and windows video here). I figured that subject was over and done with shortly after Franklin flew a kite, but it turns out we don't really know exactly what causes a bolt to start. The coolest part of the segment was these researchers in Florida. Scientists know how hard it was to observe, monitor, and even find lightning bolts, so these guys built their own rig. High-powered model rockets attached to a couple thousand feet of wire, which is grounded to larger metal structures on the ground. The result? Shoot a rocket into a storm cloud and you get instant lightning you can count on, measure, and control.
posted by mathowie at 8:22 PM PST - 30 comments

Streaming Japan. Taka Yamada's Brovision.com is a beautiful and voluminious personal video diary of Japanese life and culture. Talk with a geisha, climb to the top of Mt. Fuji, or float a paper lantern down the river. Alternately, you can check out Video-link Japan, watch some television... or ignore all that and share your favorite J-links instead.
posted by insomnia_lj at 7:17 PM PST - 7 comments

Halloween Hangman (via my dad)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:11 PM PST - 17 comments

The Sunday Telegraph reports that a secret survey commissioned by the British Ministry of Defence shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
posted by saketini99 at 6:57 PM PST - 37 comments

When science meets art. Science writer Simon Singh was annoyed with the lyrics to British singer Katie Melua's latest single. He rewrote them to be scientifically accurate, and she sings the unfortunate result (RealAudio file).
posted by smackfu at 5:21 PM PST - 21 comments

Beyond Discovery - illustrations of the path from research to human benefit
posted by Gyan at 5:21 PM PST - 7 comments

The Pixel Plant offers 150 Pixel Fonts for between Free and 45 cents each.
posted by dobbs at 4:18 PM PST - 7 comments

It's almost time for the annual "Christmas Is Under Attack" declaration spewed by Fox News. This is the 10th anniversary of my favorite strawman argument. John Gibson delivers the first shot in this phony culture-war battle with an action packed new book to defeat the anonymous liberal secularists out to destroy Santa.

From Amazon: John Gibson, a popular anchor for the Fox News Channel, has been digging up evidence about the liberal activists, lawyers, politicians, educators, and media people who are leading the war on Christmas. And he reveals that the situation is worse than you can imagine.
posted by DougieZero1982 at 3:15 PM PST - 72 comments

Etsy.com A colorful new way to shop. For those of you who don't know what you want, but know exactly what color you want it in.
posted by kindle at 3:04 PM PST - 14 comments

The Beauty of Afghanistan Remembered is a wonderful photo essay by Joanne Warfield, who went to Afghanistan in 1977 before the Russian invasion. Her photos portray a land and people that probably don't even exist anymore.
posted by Edward King at 1:59 PM PST - 11 comments

MC Hammer visits Google. And there he is, blogging something. Wait, so this means MC Hammer has a blog somwhere?
posted by Count Ziggurat at 11:50 AM PST - 29 comments

I know there's always been a dearth of particularly strangely named or just altogether strange means of taking in caffeine. Seriously, geeks will apparently buy caffeinated anything! However, I don't think I've seen anything quite as awesome as Steven Seagal's lightning bolt energy drink!
posted by twiggy at 11:12 AM PST - 42 comments

Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that homosexuals cannot be treated differently. In what conservative homophobes decry as another instance of judicual activism, the Kansas Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts, saying "moral disapproval" of such conduct is not enough to justify the different treatment. In the decision the court ruled: 1. K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 violates the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. 2. The equal protection violation inherent in K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 is cured by the severance of the words "and are members of the opposite sex" from the statute.
posted by three blind mice at 8:52 AM PST - 66 comments

Myggis & Pie (embedded video). SFW.
posted by nthdegx at 2:29 AM PST - 19 comments